A holy war — of sorts — is being waged over the Los Angeles County seal and taxpayers may end up bearing the brunt of the collateral damage.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the county Board of Supervisors Thursday, accusing the supervisors of unconstitutionally endorsing one religion over all others by voting 3-2 Jan. 7 to put a cross back on the seal.

The plaintiffs — including a priest, a rabbi and a Muslim lay leader — vowed to withdraw the lawsuit if the board backs off on changing the seal, which adorns county government buildings, vehicles, flags, office stationery, employee ID’s and other items.

Supervisors Michael Antonovich, Don Knabe and Mark Ridley-Thomas, however, have refused to budge. If the case goes to court, taxpayers would have to pay the board’s legal expenses, making this cross something everyone has to bear.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who voted with Gloria Molina against returning the cross, warned, “The bottom line is that we’re going to spend a lot of money defending an action which is highly likely to be ruled unconstitutional.”

“And if we lose — which we are likely to, according to our own lawyers — we will not only pay our own legal fees but the legal fees of the plaintiffs in this case, which will end up being very expensive,” Yaroslavsky added.

The original seal, designed in 1887 and showing an illustration of grapes, did not have a cross. But in 1957, a small one was added along with other features during a complete redesign by then-county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

When the board again redesigned the seal in 2004 — still with a cross — the ACLU threatened to sue. That was enough to convince the board to spend $700,000 to remove the cross.

On Thursday, ACLU chief counsel Mark Rosenbaum expressed frustration with the majority of the board for voting last month to put the cross back.

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“I can’t explain the votes,” he said. “I do know that the county has a corrupt Sheriff’s Department, and a troubled foster care system, and that one only needs to walk a few blocks from here to see what the homelessness issue is.”

“Of all the issues that the Board of Supervisors has to deal with, why is it spending taxpayer money and using the time of government to put a cross on the seal?” Rosenbaum asked. “It’s inexplicable and it’s a slap at all religious taxpayers, all nonreligious taxpayers, all the citizens and residents of this county.”

Seeking historical accuracy

In response to the lawsuit, Antonovich emailed a statement that, “Once again, the ACLU storm troopers are attempting to rewrite history.”

He said the 2004 version of the seal became “inaccurate” when a cross again was placed atop the real San Gabriel Mission in 2009. Previously, the historic cross had been removed during seismic work, then had been stolen and later had been recovered. He said the board merely made the seal up to date.

“The Catholic Church’s role, and specifically the San Gabriel Mission’s importance in the establishment of Los Angeles County, is well documented,” said Ridley-Thomas.

“Keeping the cross off the depiction of the mission on the county seal is not honoring a line between church and state — it is a politically correct whitewashing of our shared history.”

Knabe called the lawsuit “frivolous.”

“Our motion to add the cross to the county seal was in the name of historical correctness, not political correctness,” he said in an emailed statement from Sacramento, where he was meeting with state legislators.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, however, Jeffrey Chemerinsky, argued, “This case is about making sure that Los Angeles treats all religions equally, and makes all people of all faiths feel welcome here.”

Plaintiff Shakeel Syed, a member of the Los Angeles Council of Religious Leaders, said, “As a Muslim, my respect for all religious symbols is unconditional — all religious symbols are sacred and their sanctity is not what we are questioning today.”

“I believe that neither a cross nor any other religious symbol, including mine, has any place in a county seal,” Syed added. “Our Constitution demands that our government treat all religions equally and make no distinction between them, and placing a cross in the seal violates that important principle.”

Another plaintiff, Fr. Ian Elliott Davies of the St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church, rejected Antonovich’s portrayal of the ACLU.

“We are people of peace, who are honored to be represented by the ACLU in this lawsuit,” he said. “Storm troopers are not who we are. It is disappointing that Mr. Antonovich, a powerful politician, would use a Nazi analogy to describe our effort to stop the county from dividing people on a religious basis by recognizing only one faith tradition on the county seal.”

“This is a pro-religion case,” Rosenbaum stressed. “It is about how all religions are, in fact, created equal and must be respected equally by government.”

“If the (board) were to put the Wilshire Boulevard Temple on the seal, or a mosque on the seal, we’d bring the exact same lawsuit,” Rosenbaum added. “The point is that religion has absolutely every right and every encouragement to flourish in this community — but it doesn’t belong on a government seal.”